CHOOSING A TEACHING CAREER IN HIGHER EDUCATION - A CHALLENGE OF MOTIVATIONAL AND NON-MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS

To be a teacher is a noble responsibility which involves, besides professional competencies in the chosen field, very much vocation and dedication. The teacher must have an important luggage of knowledge but, above all, must have the ability to systematize and transfer it to the students. In the absence of the latter, the didactic act becomes a mechanical one, of no interest for the student and, eventually, even for the professor. Choosing the profession of teacher in higher education is often motivated by its importance on the social scale, the financial remuneration that has recently become significant in the Romanian education system, the job security or pleasant working conditions. However, a deeper analysis of these aspects can easily lead to demotivation by the low pay of early-stage professors, the prospects of very late career development, the lack or insufficient development of teaching and research laboratories. The purpose of this paper is to present the main motivational and non-motivational aspects for considering the teaching profession, the role of professional and psycho-pedagogical trainings in didactic career, as well as some European and individual strategies to stimulate higher education attending and teaching improving.